Airports are typically managed with a goal to achieve high flight throughput and minimize delays. When a flight is ready to depart, the pilot requests pushback from the gate. The request is evaluated by the ramp controller, and once pushback is allowed, the flight is pushed back from the gate and taxis to the runway for takeoff.
At an airport, taxi delays are primarily caused by an imbalance between airport capacity and demand. Additionally, the clustering of flights into bank structures, for example by airlines utilizing a hub and spoke model, contributes to the imbalance between demand and capacity. Up to a certain point, as the number of aircraft in an active taxi state increases, so does airport throughput. However, as the number of aircraft in a taxi state increases further, eventually saturation is observed, such that additional flights released for pushback result in increased taxi time and decreased airport throughput. Accordingly, improved airport air and surface flow management tools remain desirable.